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Our Campaign
'Our Campaign': You might have noticed that we’re running our campaign a little differently. Read on to find out how and why we’re trying to break the mould. 'The way things are' Let’s start from the beginning – every year in semester 2, elections are held to vote student representatives into the ANU Students’ Association our [[Dummy's Guide to ANUSA]]. These representatives are tasked with, well, representing the wider student body in issues that are within our interests. The election process is supposed to be an open one, which means that anyone interested in running can run. Tickets of up to 43 people are also allowed to run together to coordinate their election, policy platforms, and so on. Recruitment for these tickets is often done on the basis of capability, networking and popularity. Capability is obviously to ensure that a person can do the job right, whilst the last two ensure that the person has the “pull” to bring in votes during election time. It’s a bit of a balancing act, but it’s essentially how the recruitment process works. What this all boils down to is a pool of about 150 potential candidates for running in an election – people who will get tapped on the shoulder by ticket convenors and invited to run. The results are as varied as the candidates – some get elected to be great student representatives, whilst others leave a lot to be desired. Put in a wider perspective, though, this is can seem a little shocking – with over 8000 undergraduate students at ANU, a mere 1.9% of students put themselves forward, or are approached to run for elections. This recruitment process is often done in secret, which is why tickets seem to appear, fully-formed and in a puff of rose-scented smoke, several weeks before the elections. This is a problem. There are lots of talented, energetic and enthusiastic students out there. There are over 70 clubs and societies on campus, and in 2012 ANUSA has allocated some $450,000 of its budget towards funding them. Look at the residential committees in Halls and Colleges and your scope widens even further. They hold fantastic functions and events, to name a few. This points to the fact that there should be no shortage of students willing to do the sort of thing that ANUSA does – so where are all these people? Yes, ANUSA does do a pretty darned good job at representing students, but why is it that only 1.8% of students step forwards to do the important things that our representatives do? This is exactly where we fit in. Too lazy to read that? In sum: *Less than 1.9% of 8000+ undergraduates run for the ANUSA elections *The recruitment process is secretive *The recruitment process selects from a very, very small pool of students *Clubs, societies and residential committees indicate that there are many active students at the ANU *Why aren’t more students interested in participating in student representation? 'The way we think things out to be' We want to make this process a whole lot less secretive and a whole lot more open. The under-the-table recruitment and this 1.8% needs to change, which is why we want to run things differently. We want to openly recruit people, which is why we have this wiki. If you’re interested in any of this, let us know and we’ll fit you in! This process that we’re running is radically democratic, and it’s safe to say that nothing of this sort has been done at the ANU within recent memory. We believe that students have the talent, intelligence and passion to be involved in student representation and student issues – the vast number of fantastic clubs, societies and residential committees points to this. We want students to be able to voice their opinions and make changes. If ANUSA has access to the structures and resources to turn some of these changes into reality, why not extend that opportunity to the rest of the student body? If ANUSA is to be truly representative, then it sure as hell needs to tap into so much more than those 150 “election friendly” students. So really, the openness of our campaign and our ideas is just an extension of our values (see the About Us page]. We want to move beyond trying to simply clamour for votes and have students really think about the issues that matter. In running our campaign this way, we’re trying to send a message to all those students out there that aren’t in that 1.8%. We’re telling the people who haven’t been secretively tapped on the shoulder that their opinions count too, and that they should have just as much of an opportunity to participate as anyone else. We’re trying to set a precedent, and we want you to help. In sum: *We’re trying to run a radically democratic campaign *Openness in the campaign is an extension of the belief that ANUSA needs to tap into the vast student talent at ANU *We are trying to set a precedent